Northwestern professor, Oxford staffer jailed in stabbing

1of2FILE - This undated file photo released by the Chicago Police Department shows Wyndham Lathem, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Northwestern University. Lathem and Andrew Warren, an employee of the University of Oxford in Britain, both wanted in the fatal stabbing of a Chicago man have been taken into custody in Oakland, California, a Chicago police spokesman said Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 (Chicago Police Department via AP)Photo: HOGP

2of2FILE - This undated file photo released by the Chicago Police Department shows Andrew Warren, an employee of the University of Oxford in Britain. Warren and Northwestern University professor, Wyndham Lathem, both wanted in the fatal stabbing of a Chicago man have been taken into custody in Oakland, California, a Chicago police spokesman said Friday, Aug. 4, 2017 (Chicago Police Department via AP, File)Photo: HONS

SAN FRANCISCO - Far from their prestigious campuses, a Northwestern University professor and a University of Oxford finance officer were jailed in the San Francisco area Saturday after eight days as fugitives sought in the death of a young hairdresser in Chicago stabbed repeatedly until the knife broke, police said.

The Northwestern microbiologist, Wyndham Lathem, had a personal relationship with the victim, although the nature of it wasn't clear, and Lathem had made a video apologizing for what he called "the worst mistake of my life," police said.

Lathem, 42, was being held without bail in Alameda County and faced a court appearance in the city of Pleasanton.

The other suspect, Andrew Warren, a treasury assistant at one of Oxford's residential colleges in England, was being held at the county jail in San Francisco.

Both men surrendered separately and peacefully in the Bay Area on Friday evening.

They had been fugitives since the body of Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau, 26, was found in Lathem's Chicago apartment July 27.

Police said Lathem had a relationship with Cornell-Duranleau, who moved to Chicago from the Grand Rapids, Mich., area after receiving his cosmetology license. They have not elaborated on how Cornell-Duranleau or Lathem knew Warren, or if Warren knew them before he arrived in the United States.

Chicago police said Warren was 56; he was booked into jail as age 49.

A deputy U.S. marshal said Lathem's surrender came after fast-paced negotiations through an attorney that led to the fugitive turning himself in at the federal courthouse in Oakland.

Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Frank Conroy said the telephone negotiations began late Friday afternoon and by evening, Lathem arrived by car at the courthouse.

No guns were drawn, but Lathem was ordered to carefully step out of the vehicle and was taken into custody in a courtyard area, Conroy said.

According to Conroy, Lathem stated he would not answer questions on the advice of a lawyer, and no questions were asked.

"We are also thankful both men are safely in custody and this did not end in further tragedy," a police statement said.

Warren arrived in the United States three days before Cornell-Duranleau's death. He and Lathem were seen in surveillance video leaving Lathem's high-rise apartment building the day of the stabbing.

In a bizarre twist, police said that on that same day, before the body had been discovered, Lathem and Warren drove about 80 miles northwest to Lake Geneva, Wis., where one of them made a $1,000 cash donation to the public library there in Cornell-Duranleau's name.

Lake Geneva police said the man making the donation did not give his name.

"I've never seen where suspects in a homicide would make a donation in the victim's name," said Lake Geneva police Lt. Edward Gritzner.